Democracy

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Democracy \De*moc"ra*cy\ (d[-e]*m[o^]k"r[.a]*s[y^]), n.; pl.
     {Democracies} (d[-e]*m[o^]k"r[.a]*s[i^]z). [F. d['e]mocratie,
     fr. Gr. dhmokrati`a; dh^mos the people + kratei^n to be
     strong, to rule, kra`tos strength.]
     1. Government by the people; a form of government in which
        the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by


        the people.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Government by popular representation; a form of government
        in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but
        is indirectly exercised through a system of representation
        and delegated authority periodically renewed; a
        constitutional representative government; a republic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Collectively, the people, regarded as the source of
        government. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. The principles and policy of the Democratic party, so
        called. [U.S.]
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  democracy
       n 1: the political orientation of those who favor government by
            the people or by their elected representatives
       2: a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body
          of citizens who can elect people to represent them [syn: {republic},
           {commonwealth}] [ant: {autocracy}]
       3: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized
          group can make decisions binding on the whole group [syn:
          {majority rule}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  76 Moby Thesaurus words for "democracy":
     absolute monarchy, aristocracy, autarchy, autocracy, autonomy,
     coalition government, collective farm, collectivism, collectivity,
     collegiality, colonialism, common ownership, commonwealth,
     communal effort, communion, communism, community,
     constitutional government, constitutional monarchy, cooperation,
     cooperative society, dictatorship, dominion rule, duarchy,
     duumvirate, dyarchy, federal government, federation, feudal system,
     garrison state, gerontocracy, heteronomy, hierarchy, hierocracy,
     home rule, kibbutz, kolkhoz, limited monarchy, martial law,
     meritocracy, militarism, military government, mob rule, mobocracy,
     monarchy, neocolonialism, ochlocracy, oligarchy, pantisocracy,
     patriarchate, patriarchy, police state, profit sharing,
     public ownership, pure democracy, regency,
     representative democracy, representative government, republic,
     self-determination, self-government, sharecropping,
     social democracy, socialism, state ownership, stratocracy,
     technocracy, thearchy, theocracy, totalitarian government,
     totalitarian regime, town meeting, triarchy, triumvirate, tyranny,
     welfare state
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  DEMOCRACY, government. That form of government in which the sovereign power 
  is exercised by the people in a body, as was the practice in some of the 
  states of Ancient Greece; the term representative democracy has been given 
  to a republican government like that of the United States.